BUCEPHALUS CAPENSIS.
dark coloured bar. The upper and lateral parts of the tail olive-brown, with
a purplish tint. In some individuals the last half, or even the last two-thirds
of the body, is also of the last mentioned colour, and the parts of the back
only towards the head are of the greenish black hue.
F orm .— The figure and arrangement of the scales are the same as in adult
specimens. The head is broader in proportion to the neck than in a full-
grown specimen, and the eye is very large. The following are the measurements,
&c., of three young specimens
SEX OF LENGTH FROM NOSE LENGTH OF ABDOMINAL SÜBCAUDAL
SPECIMEN. TO BASE OF TA IL. TA IL . PLA TES. SCALES.
Ft. In. Ft. In. No. No.
Male 0 0 3f 180 103-103
Male i n 0 6 188 112-112
Female 1 8 Ü 175 91-91
The colours of the Female scarcely differ from those of the male.
It is only within the last few months, during which I have been from time to time occupied
in attentively examining all the specimens I collected in South Africa, of what is commonly
called the Boovn-slange, that I have been able to satisfy myself of the accuracy of M.
Schlegel’s conclusion, namely, that the four reptiles I had described as so many species, were
only varieties of one species. At the time I penned the descriptions which were published
in the Zoological Journal of London, in 1829, I had seen but comparatively few individuals
of each sort, and not an instance of one partly coloured after one fashion, and partly after
another. I have now, however, examined several individuals so circumstanced; and from having
found the anterior parts coloured, as in the variety A, and the hinder parts as in the
variety B, or vice versa, I am consequently compelled to consider this snake as one which
varies extremely in regard of its colouring; and, therefore, to cancel the remark I have
made in reference to the group, in my observations upon Bucephalus viridis (Reptilia,
Plate III.), which, it may be remarked, will require now to be viewed simply as a variety
of B . Capensis. The figures now published will give an accurate idea of four of the most
distinct varieties, and the only ones which we have met with, which do not exhibit more or less
of the colouring of two, or even of three, of the different varieties.
The same reasons which induced us in 1829 to consider the Boom-slange as a fitting
type for a distinct group, still incline us to hold it as such ; and we must see better
grounds than those advanced by M. Schlegel, before we consider it can be classed with
propriety in Dendrophis. The peculiar form and arrangement of the scales of this snake
afford characters by which it is to be readily distinguished from the species of that genus ;
and the singular character of the rudimentary fangs which exist at the hinder extremity of
the maxillary rows of teeth, also concur to justify its removal. As this snake, in our opinion,
is not provided with a poisonous fluid to instil into wounds which these fangs may inflict, they
must consequently be intended for a purpose different to those which exist in poisonous
reptiles. Their use seems to be to offer obstacles to the retrogression of living animals, such as